Digital Transactions
Payments processor Shift4 Payments Inc. announced early Wednesday a service outage at a major processor in August cost the company more than $22 million in payments to affected merchants. But it added the Allentown, Pa.-based company is plunging into a range of new markets with major clients including Allegiant Airlines, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and SpaceX Corp.
The company also took steps to calm concerns about a report in October linking point-of-sale devices from PAX Technology Inc. with alleged security issues. Less than 10% of Shift4’s deployed devices come from PAX, Taylor Lauber, Shift4’s chief strategy officer, told equity analysts during an earnings call Wednesday. “We encrypt all our terminals with proprietary keys regardless of the manufacturer,” Lauber said. PAX issued a statement shortly after the news surfaced indicating it is unaware of any security issues but is investigating the matter.
The August service outage at the processor TSYS, a unit of Global Payments Inc., affected merchants and service providers nationwide, including independent sales organizations besides Shift4. Brad Herring, Shift4’s chief financial officer, said Wednesday the company decided to pay out $22.4 million to compensate merchants, along with $2.3 million to partner entities and $400,000 in other payments.
